The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DEMOCRATIC National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney yesterday insisted that there is “no relationship” between his party and Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner, as he suggested that the latter’s own comments over the past week of her own political future effectively rule out any talks of an existing coalition or otherwise with the DNA.

Although acknowledging the “simple” arrangement between himself and Mrs Butler-Turner to have him appointed in December as leader of opposition business in the Senate, Mr McCartney suggested that this was the extent of “any type of relationship” between the two.

He added: “That’s how it is.”

To drive home his point, Mr McCartney referred to two previous instances where Mrs Butler-Turner made public statements about joint political endeavours with other persons or entities, only to have them refuted by the other party she said was involved.

In December, Mrs Butler-Turner was appointed Official Opposition leader after she and six other MPs expressed no confidence in Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis. She later appointed Mr McCartney as leader of opposition business in the Senate. The appointment signalled Mr McCartney’s return to Parliament after losing his Bamboo Town seat in the 2012 general election.

A few weeks later, Mrs Butler-Turner indicated that she was forming a “very powerful and bold” coalition with Mr McCartney and the DNA, and that the coalition would “change the direction of the country.” However, Mr McCartney refuted her statements a day later that, stating that the only conversation they had “was about my becoming a senator.”

In January, she confirmed to The Tribune that she would be running as an independent candidate in the next election. And on Monday, The Tribune revealed the contents of a leaked confidential email sent out by Mrs Butler-Turner, which outlined that she is laying the foundation for an “organic grassroots movement” inclusive of the other six dissident FNM MPs.

That too was refuted by one of the FNM MPs, however, who ultimately accused Mrs Butler-Turner of repeatedly making premature political statements, and speaking on behalf of the other six members without prior consultation.

When asked about the status of their relationship, Mr McCartney responded: “What relationship? What relationship?”

He added: “Listen, you would have seen comments made by (Mrs Butler-Turner) herself over the past couple of weeks. Last week, Mrs Butler-Turner said she was going to run as an independent. Monday’s headline was that she was getting together with the other six members and some other groupings I would imagine to form this grassroots, as they say, organisation to contest. That was Monday.

“Yesterday we read in the same paper that (one of) those six persons did not know about what she was talking about. The same situation when it was said that we were forming a coalition with her, and I came out the following day and said well, with respect I don’t know anything about that. That’s how it is. There’s no relationship.”

Mr McCartney then went on to explain how the arrangement with him and Mrs Butler-Turner “works in the political realm,” and the significant role it played in the DNA securing a seat in the upper house of Parliament.

“She has taken the leadership of the FNM in the House of Assembly,” Mr McCartney said of Mrs Butler-Turner. “She is the leader of (the) opposition in the House of Assembly. Not of the FNM anymore though, because she is not a part of the FNM. She has stepped down from the FNM.

“The other members, they still there with the FNM unless something has happened and I don’t know about it. But they’re still there, they’re still FNM members. Dr Minnis has lost his spot as the leader of the opposition. The DNA leader now has a place in the upper house called the Senate, as the leader of opposition business in the Senate.

“So having said that, what has transpired, at the beginning of this administration, the DNA had no position in Parliament, no seats in Parliament. Now the seat that the DNA leader holds in the houses of Parliament, ranks priority over the leader of the FNM. Historic. We continue to be history makers,” Mr McCartney said.

“So the relationship, any type of relationship that’s there, she holds the leader of opposition (post) in the House of Assembly, I hold, as the DNA leader, leader of opposition business in the senate. Simple.”